1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to reproducible systems for genetically transforming monocotyledonous plants such as maize, to methods of selecting stable genetic transformants from suspensions of transformed cells, and to methods of producing fertile plants from the transformed cells. Exemplary transformation methods include the use of microprojectile bombardment to introduce nucleic acids into cells, and selectable and/or screenable marker systems, for example, genes which confer resistance (e.g., antibiotic, herbicide, etc.), or which contain an otherwise phenotypically observable trait. In other aspects, the invention relates to the production of stably transformed and fertile monocot plants, gametes and offspring from the transgenic plants.
2. Description of the Related Art
Ever since the human species emerged from the hunting-gathering phase of its existence, and entered an agricultural phase, a major goal of human ingenuity and invention has been to improve crop yield and to alter and improve the characteristics of plants. In particular, man has sought to alter the characteristics of plants to make them more tasty and/or nutritious, to produce increased crop yield or render plants more adaptable to specific environments.
Up until recent times, crop and plant improvements depended on selective breeding of plants with desirable characteristics. Initial breeding success was probably accidental, resulting from observation of a plant with desirable characteristics, and use of that plant to propagate the next generation. However, because such plants had within them heterogenous genetic complements, it was unlikely that progeny identical to the parent(s) with the desirable traits would emerge. Nonetheless, advances in controlled breeding have resulted from both increasing knowledge of the mechanisms operative in hereditary transmission, and by empirical observations of results of making various parental plant crosses.
Recent advances in molecular biology have dramatically expanded man's ability to manipulate the germplasm of animals and plants. Genes controlling specific phenotypes, for example specific polypeptides that lend antibiotic or herbicide resistance, have been located within certain germplasm and isolated from it. Even more important has been the ability to take the genes which have been isolated from one organism and to introduce them into another organism. This transformation may be accomplished even where the recipient organism is from a different phylum, genus or species from that which donated the gene (heterologous transformation).
Attempts have been made to genetically engineer desired traits into plant genomes by introduction of exogenous genes using genetic engineering techniques. These techniques have been successfully applied in some plant systems, principally in dicotyledonous species. The uptake of new DNA by recipient plant cells has been accomplished by various means, including Agrobacterium infection (32), polyethylene glycol (PEG)-mediated DNA uptake (25), electroporation of protoplasts (17) and microprojectile bombardment (23). Unfortunately, the introduction of exogenous DNA into monocotyledonous species and subsequent regeneration of transformed plants has proven much more difficult than transformation and regeneration in dicotyledonous plants. Moreover, reports of methods for the transformation of monocotyledons such as maize, and subsequent production of fertile maize plants, have not been forthcoming. Consequently, success has not been achieved in this area and commercial implementation of transformation by production of fertile transgenic plants has not been achieved. This failure has been particularly unfortunate in the case of maize, where there is a particularly great need for methods for improving genetic characteristics.
Problems in the development of genetically transformed monocotyledonous species have arisen in a variety of general areas. For example, there is generally a lack of methods which allow one to introduce nucleic acids into cells and yet permit efficient cell culture and eventual regeneration of fertile plants. Only limited successes have been noted. In rice, for example, DNA transfer has only recently been reported using protoplast electroporation and subsequent regeneration of transgenic plants (41). Furthermore, in maize, transformation using protoplast electroporation has also been reported (see, e.g., 17).
However, recovery of stably transformed plants has not been reproducible. A particularly serious failure is that the few transgenic plants produced in the case of maize have not been fertile (38). While regeneration of fertile corn plants from protoplasts has been reported (37, 39), these reported methods have been limited to the use of non-transformed protoplasts. Moreover, regeneration of plants from protoplasts is a technique which carries its own set of significant drawbacks. Even with vigorous attempts to achieve fertile, transformed maize plants, reports of success in this regard have not been forthcoming.
A transformation technique that circumvents the need to use protoplasts is microprojectile bombardment. Although transient expression of a reporter gene was detected in bombarded tobacco pollen (47), stable transformation by microprojectile bombardment of pollen has not been reported for any plant species. Bombardment of soybean apical meristems with DNA-coated gold particles resulted in chimeric plants containing transgenic sectors. Progeny containing the introduced gene were obtained at a low frequency (27). Bombardment of shoot meristems of immature maize embryos resulted in sectors of tissue expressing a visible marker, anthocyanin, the synthesis of which was triggered by the introduction of a regulatory gene (46). An analysis of cell lineage patterns in maize (28) suggests that germline transformation of maize by such an approach may be difficult.
A second major problem in achieving successful monocot transformation has resulted from the lack of efficient marker gene systems which have been employed to identify stably transformed cells. Marker gene systems are those which allow the selection of, and/or screening for, expression products of DNA. For use as assays for transformed cells, the selectable or screenable products should be those from genetic constructs introduced into the recipient cells. Hence, such marker genes can be used to identify stable transformants.
Of the more commonly used marker gene systems are gene systems which confer resistance to aminoglycosides such as kanamycin. While kanamycin resistance has been used successfully in both rice (51) and corn protoplast systems (38), it remains a very difficult selective agent to use in monocots due to high endogenous resistance (19). Many monocot species, maize, in particular, possess high endogenous levels of resistance to aminoglycosides. Consequently, this class of compounds cannot be used reproducibly to distinguish transformed from non-transformed tissue. New methods for reproducible selection of or screening for transformed plant cells are therefore needed.
Accordingly, it is clear that improved methods and/or approaches to the genetic transformation of monocotyledonous species would represent a great advance in the art. Furthermore, it would be of particular significance to provide novel approaches to monocot transformation, such as transformation of maize cells, which would allow for the production of stably transformed, fertile corn plants and progeny into which desired exogenous genes have been introduced. Furthermore, the identification of marker gene systems applicable to monocot systems such as maize would provide a useful means for applying such techniques generally. Thus, the development of these and other techniques for the preparation of stable genetically transformed monocots such as maize could potentially revolutionize approaches to monocot breeding.